Lalibela

Lalibela is a former capital of Ethiopia and these churches were legendarily inspired by a trip that King Lalibela took to Jerusalem. Like many legends, there are some doubts to the truthfulness of this. There are many churches at Lalibela, and most of them are monolithic, carved out of one giant piece of rock. The workers started at the top and once they created windows, they removed all of the rock that had been inside through them until they made the doors. Archeologists say these churches date from the seventh to thirteenth centuries. King Lalibela is revered as a saint and there are all kinds of legends about him, including the story that he built one of these churches in less than a month with only the help of angels.

The details of these churches are really cool. Check out these windows and pillars.

close ups of details in various Lalibela churches

I rerouted my trip to travel with Yun who came as a package deal along with Dan and Joey. All of us served in the Peace Corps at various points and it’s incredible how many things we had in common from that experience. I’m so grateful for the friendships that developed from traveling together. The poster church of Lalibela is St. George’s Church because of its shape and fantastic preservation. Looking down on the church really shows the massive amount of carving required to create such a masterpiece.

top of St. George’s; Joey, Yun & Dan; view down on the church from the edge

Aksum

Aksum was the first capital of Ethiopia from about 100 AD-960 AD. During this time, stelae were most likely built as gravestones. They were all carved from one huge piece of rock. (Technical note: an obelisk, although similar in shape, is carved from multiple pieces and then assembled.) The Great Stele weighed over 520 tons and probably broke during construction. The Rome Stele had been split into three pieces and stolen by the Italians, but was returned in 2007. At the top of each of the steles, there probably would have been a metal plate, although their purpose is unknown. The one they have found has a face surrounded by an illegible inscription.

Great Stele, Rome Stele, broken stele

Aksum also holds a lot of religious significance for Ethiopians. From the legends, Queen of Sheba supposedly had a son with King Solomon named Menelik I. (There is a rock palace in Aksum attributed to Queen of Sheba, but again, most historians are unclear if she actually existed.) Menelik I was raised by King Solomon and apparently when he left Jerusalem, he brought the Ark of the Covenant, which contains the original ten commandments with him back to Ethiopia for safekeeping. It has been housed in the Church of Mary of Zion ever since and only one guardian is ever allowed to see it. When Haile Selassie returned from exile, he built the largest church in all of Ethiopia in the 1950’s.

Chapel of the Tablet at the old Church of Mary of Zion, church book written in Ge’ez, much newer Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion

Abuna Yemata Guh

Less than a year ago, a friend sent me this BBC video about the most hardcore baptism. When I decided to come to Ethiopia, I immediately put in on my list of places to visit. It is definitely an intense climb, although it can be done with ropes for those more fearful of heights). There are over 120 rock churches in this area of the Tigray province, some on flat ground and some with significant hikes up hilltops.

views of the climb, paintings from inside the church, beautiful views from the church entryway

Danakil Depression

This place is certainly one of the most unique places I’ve ever seen. It is controlled by the Afar and after some violence a few years back, tourists are required to visit in giant convoys with varying amounts of military support along the way. The first stop is the salt flats and the very shallow salty lake. Locals still harvest the salt (backbreaking work) and sell it in the bigger cities nearby. The roads in the area have recently been improved because potash is again being mined in the area.

sunset reflecting on the salt flats, salt patches, posing on the edge of the salt lake

Most people go to Danakil to see Erta Ale, a volcano that has been continuously erupting for years and at certain times looks like a giant lava lake. Unfortunately, it is mostly just smoking right now, so I opted instead to head only for Dallol, the site of some of the most surreal landscapes I have ever seen. The colors do not seem to belong to this world.

close-up view of the ground in Dallol

This entire area is incredibly hot, being over 100 meters below sea level and in the middle of the desert. It is also volcanically active, full of vents and fumaroles spewing toxic chemicals into the air. Some of these include ferrous chloride, iron hydroxide, and sulfuric compounds that create the stunning colors that blanket the area. In some places, those gases are still released in such high quantities that they choke off the oxygen, making it difficult to breathe. This place is definitely like nothing else I have ever seen.

the surreal landscapes of Dallol

Bonus Panoramas from Dallol

Bahir Dar

This town is known for being a beautiful, calm city sitting on the shores of Lake Tana. The lake itself is huge, covering over 832 square miles, and is full of tilapia and even a few hippos. The lake has two major claims to fame. The first is that it is the source of the Blue Nile which eventually joins the White Nile to become the much bigger Nile River that eventually empties out into the Mediterranean Sea. The second is the large number of monasteries and churches that are located on the peninsulas and islands in the lake. Monks and nuns live in these remote places and practice their spiritual beliefs, while greeting tourists from time to time. The only way to get to many of these monasteries is by boat.

murals from inside the relatively modern Entos Eyesu, including St. George killing the dragon

murals from inside the 14th century church Ura Kidane Meret

Gonder

Ethiopia has a few different historical periods and the city of Gonder was the center of the Solomonic dynasty (around 1632-1755). Before this time, the capital moved from place to place, but Emperor Fasiladas rooted the capital in Gonder. The emperor traced his family tree to Menelik I, the legendary offspring of an encounter between the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. There is much discussion about who the Queen of Sheba was and whether or not she actually existed, but many Ethiopians take this story as fact. Regardless, the castle complex of Gonder holds six different royal buildings constructed by the Emperor and his descendants and is definitely deserving of its UNESCO world heritage site designation.

Gonder is also home to Fasilidas’ baths which are beautiful to behold and are the center gathering spot for Epiphany (called Timkat in Amharic), which celebrates the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan. Many people enter the baths fully clothed to commemorate the event.

Also in Gonder is the Debre Berhan Selassie church, which has one of the coolest painted ceilings I’ve ever seen. It is entirely covered in angelic cherubs and almost every square inch of the walls are blanketed with murals depicting events from the Bible including Daniel and the lions’ den, Mary Magdalene, Jesus’ crucifixion, and of course, St. George and the dragon.

church, bell for starting service, closeup of roof

cherub covered ceiling, the holy trinity above the alter, St. George killing the dragon

Simien Mountains

The Simien plateau is mostly composed of basalt that was then uplifted due to volcanic activity. There’s a strong haze that persists from sand and dust blowing in from the Sahara, but the views are still jaw-dropping. One of the best parts of my three-day hike was reuniting with my old friend Yun who I met during my second Peace Corps rotation in Morocco. She randomly got in touch after she saw that we were going to be in Ethiopia at the same time, so I moved my plans around so I could meet up with her and her crew (which coincidentally included a friend of a friend – small world).

Yun & I, view out from the plateau, one of our scouts who carried an AK-47 the whole way

The Simiens are also a UNESCO world heritage site, partially designated such because it is the home to several endemic species. Gelada monkeys are the only members of their genus that are still alive today. They are endemic to the highlands of Ethiopia and don’t live anywhere else in the world. They are known for the red “bleeding-heart” shape on their chest. In females, this becomes enlarged when they are ready for mating. Geladas are vegetarians and they are the only primates that get almost all of their energy from just eating grass. Although Bale Mountains has a larger population of endangered, endemic Ethiopian wolves, we were also lucky enough to spot a few from a distance on this trip as well.

Gelada monkey, Ethiopian wolf, thick-billed raven

This is certainly not the easiest trek I’ve ever walked, since altitude still tends to kick my butt if I’m not acclimatized. It was also colder than I expected at nights, and even after putting on all my clothes, I didn’t sleep well. However, the chance to see incredibly rare wildlife and the always spectacular Milky Way completely made up for any discomfort I may have felt. (Note to self: Next time bring more clothes and gloves.)

view from the plateau on the last day, sunset behind a giant lobelia plant, our group hiking

Bonus Panoramas

I ended up in Djibouti because I have a small obsession with whale sharks, which are usually in residence in the Gulf of Tadjoura until the end of January. Unfortunately, they were all gone or too deep in the water to see by the time I got there. However, this crazy search for charismatic marine megafauna brought me to a country full of surreal beauty.

views from the train going from Addis Ababa to Djibouti City (these are all from Ethiopia)

Before I left on my 13 hour train journey from Addis, everyone told me Djibouti was going to be hot, hot, and hot. It was hot, but tolerably so and while I was there, it even rained. Djibouti is a desert and everything is imported from elsewhere which makes this one of the most expensive countries I’ve ever visited. It has two main economic income streams: shipping from the port (where everything is currently trucked overland to Ethiopia) and tons of military bases (including the US, France, UK, Italy, Spain, China, Saudi Arabia, and Japan). Perhaps not that surprising, I rarely ever saw foreigners on the streets, they seem to stay almost entirely on the bases.

view of Balbala (where most Djiboutians live because they can’t afford to live in Djibouti Ville), old port, house in Balbala

Arta Plage

Since whale sharks were nowhere to be found, I signed up for a kayaking and snorkeling trip to Arta Plage. The day we went kayaking, we were treated to some extremely rare weather: rainy, windy and almost chilly. The water was warmer than the air, which was crazy compared to how hot it was in following days. We did run into hordes of tiny jellyfish, who speared us with their nematocysts, causing some unpleasant tingling in the arms, legs, and especially the skin around the mouth. We took a break for lunch and headed out to rougher waters, where there were less jellyfish and more gorgeous meter wide fan corals. Djibouti has some of the most beautiful reefs I’ve ever seen outside of the Red Sea. (I know nothing about coral identification, as can be seen be the captions.)

coral reef, nasty hordes of jellyfish, coral

coral, fish, coral

fish, corals, giant clam

Djibouti does have some interesting life outside of its water as well.

Djibouti cow, ostrich (squint and you can see it), hamadrayas baboon

Lac Abbé

After a long, long, long Land Rover journey, we arrived at Lac Abbé which is on the border of Ethiopia and Djibouti. This area sits on top of active geothermal activity. Thousands of years ago, this area was still covered by the salty lake and as mineral-rich and super-hot fluid from underneath the earth escaped into the lake, it formed these crazy limestone chimneys. This area is part of the Afar Triangle, where three plates are pulling away from each other at the same junction. Many of the chimneys are situated along jaunty lines, showcasing the faults below. It makes for some surreal landscapes, both during the day and especially at sunrise.

limestone chimneys

chimney, close-up of rock-hard, bubbling surface, me & chimney

morning steam from hot springs, dawn in Lac Abbé, sunrise at Lac Abbé

This area is dominated by Afars, some of whom have settled into more permanent structures. We stayed in the ones that look like armadillos, which were quite comfortable even in the desert chill. One of the biggest daily traditions in Djibouti is the consumption of khat (also spelled qat, chat). It’s chewed every day in the afternoon, or all the time if you’re a driver. Khat is an upper, making people feel more alert, a milder version of speed. Almost all of the khat consumed in Djibouti comes overland in trucks from Ethiopia. Apparently the smaller leaves are best and it costs about 300 Djiboutian francs ($1.75) for a bundle. My driver went through 2-3 a day.

view from the Afar camp we stayed in as the goats are taken back in for the evening

Lac Assal

Lac Assal is the other huge tourist attraction in Djibouti. It’s the lowest point in Africa at 509 ft (155m) below sea level. The water from surrounding areas drains into it but the water has nowhere to go. Instead the water evaporates, leaving behind a very salty lake (the third saltiest in the world).

I, of course, had to get in and try it out. Because the water is so salty, it has a higher density. This creates a larger buoyancy force pushing up on the human body and humans float higher up in the water (very similar to the Dead Sea). When I got out, I was covered in a light dusting of salt and my guide had to pour two liters of water over my head to make the ride home palatable.

floating in Lac Assal, view from above, walking towards Lac Assal

This means I have been to the highest and lowest points on the continent of Africa. This was not an accomplishment I set out to achieve, but it’s kind of cool nonetheless.

Warning, this post is outrageously long because nature is awesome. Also, I have things to say about Addis Ababa, but I’ll be passing through a few more times, so I’ll add my thoughts about the capital to a later post.

Bale Mountains

The reason I’m here in Ethiopia at all is because my amazing neighbor Tselate decided to take a trip back home. For as long as we’ve lived next to each other, I’d been telling her that I was going to come with her the next time she went. She booked her flight, so I booked mine. In spite of growing up in Addis Ababa, she never really got to see a lot of the country and she told me she really wanted to see the Bale (pronounced bah-lay) Mountains, so off we went.

The star of the show in the Bale Mountains is one of the most endangered mammals in the world: the Ethiopian wolf. There are less than 500 of these creatures left on the earth and about 50% of them live in the Bale Mountains. We were lucky enough to see two of them, one of them crossed the road right in front of our car! They are threatened not only by rabies and canine distemper, but also climate change. They live at a particularly high altitude and as the climate gets warmer, they’ll move higher up the mountain until they run out of mountain to go up. I’d recently read the book Inheritors of the Earth, that mentions their plight and some possible solutions.

Ethiopian wolf (3 photos because they are beautiful and rare creatures) known in Amharic as Ky kebero which means red jackal

We were also able to see the mountain nyala, another Ethiopian endemic. There were large groups of females and babies along with a few lone males loitering around nearby.

mountain nyala – baby, female adult, male adult

I have a special fondness for primates, and although I’ve seen lots of baboons and vervet monkeys in my life, the colobus monkey is stunning. Their long black and white fur and long shaggy tails make them extremely distinctive.

olive baboon, colobus monkey, vervet monkeys

Totally unscientific and very subjective comment: warthogs are really cute when they run with their tails wagging. I am aware that the photo of the giant forest hog below is a bit lacking, but apparently it was a rare find (our guide Ahmed had only seen it three times).

warthog, local impressively-crafted houses, giant forest hog

The flora is the high afro-alpine environment is quite unique as well.

One of the days we drove three hours (each way) to see a natural limestone cave, known as Sof Omar because of the religious Muslim who lived in the caves for many years along with his daughter. The cave actually continues on for a couple kilometers, but it is full of water at this time of year. The outside was particularly beautiful and it was Tselate’s first time spelunking.

Outside of Sof Omar cave

Tselate, me, Tselate and me after I convinced her to skootch up the side of a rock

Lake Hawassa

On our way back we stopped at Lake Hawassa and took a short boat ride around the lake. It’s not very hard to see why this place is beloved among birders and fishermen.

Pictures can never fully capture the whole experience. Being trapped in a car for five days means getting to know people in different ways. Ahmed (our guide from Bale Mountain Tours) is from the Oromo tribe, which is the largest ethnic majority in Ethiopia. He taught us some really basic greetings in Oromiffa.

Hello.

Ah-kem.

Response to hello.

Na-ga-ha.

Good morning.

Ah-kem bul-ten.

Good afternoon.

Ah-kem ol-ten.

Good night.

Hal-kan-ga-ri.

In addition, Tselate, Mohammed (our driver) and Ahmed all helped me learn how to count in Amharic. I still can’t always hear the numbers people say to me, but I can stumble through saying them. Speaking and listening are such different skills.

One of my favorite moments of the trip had nothing to do with nature at all. On the way back from the cave, we got a flat tire and the guys put on the spare. We drove onwards to a small town and while stopping for a coffee break, they realized that we had another flat tire, so Mohammed took the car to get the tires fixed at a shop down the road. Next to the tire shop, there was a small shaded area outside of a restaurant where we perched on benches out of the sun. We watched as the tire guys took apart the hubs using giant hammers and crowbars to get to the tubes inside. Once the tubes were out they had to be taken to a different shop down the street to be patched. A faranji (foreigner) like myself attracts quite a bit of attention in small towns and pretty soon there were a group of young people peering at us.

Tselate asked them about themselves and then encouraged them to practice their English with me, but after a few introductory phrases the kids and I were all stuck. I looked over the woven reed wall separating us from the tire guys and the guy who left with the tubes was nowhere to be seen, so we still had to pass a bit of time. At that moment, I realized we could continue to sit there awkwardly gawking at each other or we could actually interact with each other. The teacher in me took over, and I started teaching the girls how to play Slide, the hand clapping game that one of my campers taught me twenty years ago in Los Angeles. If you’re not familiar with Slide, it’s a simple pattern of hand claps that gets repeated based on the number of turns you’ve completed. The first time, the pattern is repeated once and then the second time, twice, the third time, three times, etc. I’d just learned Amharic numbers, so this was perfect practice. Ahnd, hu-let, sost. One, two, three. As I showed one of the girls the pattern, she started to catch on and count with me. Then Tselate got in on the fun and clarified my instructions in Amharic with the first girl and I started teaching another girl. Just as Ahmed told us the car was fixed, we had gotten the two girls to play Slide with each other. As we walked away, we heard them counting and clapping.

I am so deeply appreciative of Tselate for all the hospitality she and her family have shown me. We’ve lived next to each other for years, but nothing brings you together like sharing the same space. I am deeply grateful for everything she has shared and the depth of our friendship that has developed because of this time. Am-se-ge-ne-she-a-le-hu, Tselate. May we have more exciting adventures in the years to come. 🙂

Tselate in a field of flowers, Tselate drinking mango juice and making new friends in the town of Adama, Tselate drinking her beloved coffee

I’m on the road again for the spring semester. Here’s the map of my planned travels, but it is four and a half months of movement so things may change over time.

The Plan

Doha

My first stop on this trip was a long layover (by design) in Doha, Qatar. It’s a tiny little country on the northern side of the Arabian Peninsula. You may have heard about it in the news, because a bunch of other countries cut ties with them awhile back for supporting terrorism. This BBC article is a good read on the subject.

Qatar is oil rich and only 88% of the people who live there are actually Qatari. It’s a nation of immigrants, and walking down the streets you are as likely to hear Tagalog and Hindi as you are to hear Arabic. Immigrants are imported to do all the jobs that Qataris don’t want – waiters, fishermen, maids, nannies, construction workers, even tour guides! English becomes the lingua franca because so many people are from somewhere else.

After landing at the airport, I hopped on a bus into the city and walked along the beautiful La Corniche since it was still quite early in the morning and nothing much was open. There’s a huge developed skyline across the water that contrasts intensely with the old dhow fishing boats lined up along the harbor.

dhow on the harbor, view of the skyline, the Pearl monument

One of the highlights of Doha is the spectacular Museum of Islamic Art, which is a collection of art from the Muslim world, stretching from China to Spain. Because of Islam’s prohibition on representing figures in religious artifacts, geometric patterns feature prominently in the work. Muslim artists were not only fabulous artisans, they were also mathematical geniuses. I particularly enjoyed seeing how a tessellated shape can be entirely transformed when crafted in different styles of woodwork.

Can you see the same pattern in all of these?

The room where I spent quite a bit of time was the one showcasing art and science. (Imagine that. Ha ha.) Astronomy was a huge source of interest for Muslim scholars, partially because prayers that occur five times each day are set according to the rising and setting of the sun. After collecting years of data and making observations, Muslim scientists had some deeper understandings of the universe than many others around the same time. I just saw this decolonizing infographic showing how so much of what they knew was “discovered” by later Europeans.

astrolabe used for calculating latitude, a description and model for how eclipses occur, celestial globe of constellations

For being a huge city, I was surprised by how many animals were hanging out in the area. There’s a random pen of very unhappy camels right off the main road and a huge stable filled with Arabian horses. In addition, there are rows of shops filled with falcons for sale since using them to hunt other animals is a tradition among Qataris. Falcons cost anywhere from $1,500 to $15,000, which explains the need for the falcon hospital nearby.

camel in the middle of the city, falcon (with eyes covered) in the falcon souq, Arabian horse

Some folks have requested more food photos this time around, so I’ll do my best to provide. For breakfast I had giant Yemeni bread with beans and a spicy cheese sauce, chased down by sweet milk tea. I picked this restaurant solely on how delicious the food looked when I walked by and I was right. The guy who ran the restaurant was so happy that I spoke some Arabic. I learned the Darija dialect when I lived in Morocco, but Gulf Arabic is quite different, so I needed to look up some words. As I was leaving, I heard people speaking Spanish and after finding out they were from Peru, Argentina and Chile, we talked for a short time in Spanish about my recent travels. Then I went to the counter and told the man how delicious the food was and how full I was in Arabic. It was a strange small-world polyglot moment.

One last photo of the beautiful skyline from the outdoor patio at the Museum of Islamic Art.

After Doha, I headed to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. Internet has been a bit challenging here and my phone was stolen (again!). Apparently it has become a right of passage for me to lose my phone the first week I embark on a long journey. Fortunately, the rest of my time here has been great so far. My photos weren’t backed up, so my fabulous museum and church visits from the past few days are not visually documented. I’m safe and happy and having a wonderful time!

As soon as I knew that I was awarded a sabbatical, this was the part of the trip that I knew I had to do this year. Hiking in Patagonia can only happen during summer in the southern hemisphere, which is a time of year that I’d normally be teaching. Because I knew I’d have December free, I centered the rest of my trip around making sure I’d be at the tip of South America right now.

PUERTO NATALES

First stop en route to the park was the nearby town of Puerto Natales. It’s the town everyone passes through on way to the park. I spent a whole day getting supplies and packing up my things and managed to do a little bit of sightseeing along the fjord as well.

One of the most unique things I found out about were mylodons. They’re extinct ground sloths that would have been about 10 feet tall and weighed about a ton. Some very well-preserved remains were found in a cave nearby and brought the town a bit of fame in paleontology circles.

view of the fjord from Puerto Natales, life-sized statue of a mylodon, Monumento de la Mano

PARQUE NACIONAL TORRES DEL PAINE

The roughly 80 mile trip I did is colloquially referred to as the “O” because on a map it’s basically a big circle. A lot of people hike the “W” which is the bottom half of the “O” and is half as long. In the map below, the “W” is the blue line and the “O” is both the red and blue lines.

Because I’m crazy and figured I’d only get this opportunity once in my life, I booked my campsites for the longer 9 day, 8 night trek almost six months ago. It’s a beautiful circuit of glacially carved landscapes and pictures will never do the actual views justice. Nevertheless, here are my favorite 3 photos from each day of the trek in hopes of giving you a small glimpse of the wonders of Patagonia.

Day 1: Welcome Center to Seron

Day 2: Seron to Dickson

Day 3: Dickson to Los Perros

Day 4: Los Perros to Paso

Day 5: Paso to Grey (plus kayak to the glacier)

Day 6: Grey to Italiano

Day 7: Italiano to Los Cuernos (including hike up the French Valley)

Day 8: Los Cuernos to Chileno

Day 9: Chileno to Welcome Center (including hike to the Torres)

Bonus Panoramas

This is, by far, the longest solo trip I’ve ever done. However, the path is filled with other amazing hikers and I never felt alone for very long. Since everyone is moving in the same direction and campsites are mandatory, I ran into people over and over again and made some true friends for life.

There are many things that went wrong on this trip. My stove was giving my trouble and I had to take it apart and put it back together twice. My aging backpack basically fell apart: one of the metal support spines broke, the front left pocket zipper is broken, and four growing holes appeared along pocket seams that I patched with duct tape. I tripped over a rock, leaving a big bruise on my left leg and my face was attacked by a couple of mosquitos. Yet somehow, looking back on the trip, I feel nothing but incredible wonder and joy for the beauty nature provides. The last few months have been a journey towards mental and physical healing and this trip took me a long way back towards feeling like myself again. Crazy, but blessed.

VALPARAÍSO

Hanging out in Valparaíso was basically a vacation from my vacation. My former colleague Cata picked me up from the airport and whisked me to her beautiful place that she and her husband are running as an Airbnb. No buses and taxis. Just an old friend and conversation. After we arrived they showed me all over town and even invited me to a friend’s Thanksgiving celebration. I made a cherry blueberry pie (and Cata helped), because they are fresh in the market right now. (It’s summer here!)

Cata and I posing next to beautiful art, view of Valpo, Cata learning how to weave pie lattice

Valparaíso is known for its beautiful murals and one of the coolest is on their hotel (the one with Van Gogh below). The best thing to do is just walk around town and run into awesome art. Here’s some of my favorite ones:

SANTIAGO

I finally had to say goodbye and headed into the capital city where I was able to indulge my love of museums and beautiful outdoor spaces. The most important place I visited was the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. Most of the museum is dedicated to exploring the terrible crimes committed while Pinochet was dictator. Many people were tortured, many died, and many disappeared (almost all of those were presumably killed). The museum is a reminder to never forget what happened under the oppressive regime, so as to hopefully make sure that it never happens again.

tribute to people who died and disappeared under Pinochet, reminder that indigenous people are still here, the first article of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Just in case you wanted to read what that last photo says in English:

Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

If you’ve never read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it’s great and you should take a moment to look it over. I had a simplified version of it up on my classroom wall. Read the whole document here.

I also visited several art museums! The quipu in the photo below needs some explanation. These were used in Inca times to record numbers, probably for taxation purposes. Powers of ten are signified by different regions along the strings and the numbers of knots at each location indicates how many digits are in each position. So for example 7 knots in the tens section and 2 knots in the ones section would mean 72. (Although this is a simplification because knots in the ones sections are actually done a bit differently). Scientists figured this out because there are certain strings that add up to all the previous strings. However, other quipus might show maps or other information and no one really knows what the colors are for. It appears the Inca didn’t have a written language, but these quipus are certainly part of their recorded history. (Note: Santiago was an Inca city, their empire stretched this far south.)

exhibit at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, my favorite sculpture at the Parque De Las Esculturas, quipu at the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino

I also climbed a few hills to get some beautiful views of the city. I loved that Santiago is full of parks and nature spots. It makes the crowded spaces feel very liveable.

view from Castillo Hidalgo on Cerro Santa Lucía

The picture of the sunset below was quite nice, but the funicular that goes down the mountain stopped running at 7pm. The sun doesn’t set until 8:30pm, so I started walking down the hill as it was getting darker. Unfortunately, I hadn’t planned my route back very well and ended up on a mountain bike path (with fortunately no bikes on it). However, that path didn’t actually connect to the street, so I decided to go on a little adventure off trail and bushwhacked my way through plants as I basically slid down the rest of the hill. I was covered in tiny spiky plant parts, had a couple tiny splinters in my hand, and got several scratches on my leg, but I survived! 🙂

view of Castillo Hidalgo on Cerro Santa Lucía, sunset from Cerro San Cristóbal

WANT A POSTCARD?

This offer is still valid. 🙂 If you want a postcard from overseas, fill out this postcard form! At some point this school year, I will send you a postcard from somewhere outside the United States. I just sent a bunch from Chile!